Early Life and Artistic Beginnings Born in Poltava, Ukraine, Anna Staritsky was raised in an aristocratic family. Her early education in drawing, music, and poetry was shaped by instructors such as Tatiana Soukhotina-Tolstaïa and Vladimir Favorsky. Following a period spent in France to address health concerns, she resided in Prague before studying at the Beaux Arts de Sofia in Bulgaria. In 1932, she moved to Brussels to study advertising at La Cambre, where she worked as a commercial artist between 1933 and 1940. During this period, she also produced portraits. Her life took a significant tur…